House deedsElectricity bill (not asked for in the event)PassportPhotos (we took eight and they kept all of them)AMKA detailsAFM number(Expired EHIC) cardA sheet with all relevant details of UK state pension including NI number (which they copied).

Note this is slightly different from Warwick's list as we were dealing with a UK pensioner, with the intention of getting an IKA book.

Definitely we were told there would be a fortnight's wait for the permit to arrive - the precise date (also a Wednesday) was given for collection.

But - does our friend have to collect it? (I do want to avoid having to phone Vryses police station to ask this...)

Oooops. I forgot to mention AFM. Obviously if you have item 11, Greek tax statement it would be on there but if not make sure you have it with you.

Most of the things on my list will never be asked for but if you have them with you it doesn't do any harm and you can never predict what requirement a particular officer will dream up. When I got my first residence permit, under the old rules, the officer demanded our marriage licence, an official translation of the marriage licence and an ΥΠΕΥΘΥΝΗ ΔΗΛΩΣΗ signed by me certifying that we were still married and that I was supporting my wife. I was working in Greece at the time and I also had to get two certificates from the government section where employers register employees to prove that I was working legally. There again he was the officer in that station responsible for issuing permits and he had to fax Athens to ask what he needed to do. Go figure. As Filippos said you can never totally predict what they will require. I remember somebody on a different forum many years ago reporting that they had walked into a police station in Agios Nikolaos with their passport and two photos and walked out with the permit.

We went to get ours a week ago (Thursday), must say we went with someone who knows the ropes, a Greek. We took, copy of deeds of the house, copy of a recent bank statement, which was a screen shot from our online banking, a phone bill, passports, AFM, 4 photos each, private healthcare documents, tried showing just our private health cards, but they wanted to see actual policy, filled out a form, bobs ya uncle blah blah blah, ring Thursday next week, yesterday, we rang today, went and collected today, sorted, very easy and straight forward, perhaps going with a Greek helped!

If they won't accept an EHIC as healthcover, Stavros, who is an insurance agent who often gives good advice on this forum, can provide a basic health insurance that satisfies residency requirements at low cost.

Ok thanks, but i thought everyone has said the EHIC was sufficient. Im sure its reasonable and i can totally understand the greeks wanting this especially as we are leaving the EU in march, but i am hoping to do without extra hassle and cost if possible.

Yes of course, good to know , but then if it is expensive, and ive never known insurance not to be, esp at our age, them the whole thing might not be worth it yet anyway, until retirement. And we will just cross fingers re brexit anyway

when I got my full long term permit a few years ago ,I had to produce a health insurance policy ...I can't get an EHIC card 'cos I don't have a UK address...I think it depends who is doing the paperwork ...the first permit I got in 2001 they told me I did'nt need one because" we are all European now" .